ECU module programming guide using FDRS

[CanuckActual]

Your OTA dashboard says you got 2.1.1 yesterday....that is true. Vehicle history does not show they even connected the truck to FDRS yesterday or today. I don't have FDRS to provide you with a list of modules needing an update, but I am sure the list is long if you are only getting 2.1.1 now. The good news is, you've gotten two OTA's in 9 days, so your truck is getting some love from the OTA gods.

Thanks a lot Javier! As soon as my phone rang at 1130 this morning I suspected they didn’t do a thing to the truck, no way would they have had time.

That is indeed good news about the OTAs beginning to roll in, especially now that I should be able to schedule multiple updates per week from the sounds of it. Maybe I’ll get there eventually without the dealership’s help. I don’t have a PC (max only) to even use to run FDRS/mongoose etc and was hoping against all odds that I could save myself the $1000 or so Canadian it’d take for me to acquire all the tools. With Black Friday coming though, I can hopefully at least save some cash on the new laptop ?

It would be great to be able be able to pull up a list of ilium of date modules & the activity log to show the dealership I know to an absolute certainty I’m being lied to. I think that alone would be worth the cost of a 2 day license to me…

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[C. Mays]

Would someone be able to pull up my vehicle log in FDRS and take a screenshot of the activity over the last couple days?

Dealership is saying an OTA came trough on the 12th (I got notification in my app,now Have lights & horn through FordPass) and that my system is now fully up to date. I would obviously be SHOCKED if that were the case, I’d love to have the logs to see exactly what, if anything, they tried to do for when I pick the truck up.

Thanks in advance ??

1FTFW1ED4MFA05912

 

[RickBullotta]

Would someone be able to pull up my vehicle log in FDRS and take a screenshot of the activity over the last couple days?

Dealership is saying an OTA came trough on the 12th (I got notification in my app,now Have lights & horn through FordPass) and that my system is now fully up to date. I would obviously be SHOCKED if that were the case, I’d love to have the logs to see exactly what, if anything, they tried to do for when I pick the truck up.

Thanks in advance ??

1FTFW1ED4MFA05912

Quite a few updates need to be done, including some that are recall/safety related.

 

[CanuckActual]

Quite a few updates need to be done, including some that are recall/safety related.

Thanks again you guys! Infinitely more helpful than the dealership!

 

[Snakebitten]

Quite a few updates need to be done, including some that are recall/safety related.

But they told him it's now completely up to date. ?

You know what's really amazing is that it's taking so long for "them" to figure out that these Gen14's have effectively removed the veil that they have been hidden behind for so long. I would love to see the looks on folks faces when someone points that out to them. "you do realize that guy you just totally lied to his face knows you lied to his face?"

What? How?

.......

 

[rugedraw]

But they told him it's now completely up to date. ?

You know what's really amazing is that it's taking so long for "them" to figure out that these Gen14's have effectively removed the veil that they have been hidden behind for so long. I would love to see the looks on folks faces when someone points that out to them. "you do realize that guy you just totally lied to his face knows you lied to his face?"

What? How?

.......

The thing is, I don' t think the truck ever made it to a tech. The service advisor pulled up his OTA dashboard yesterday and when he saw he had gotten an update the same day, he assumed the truck was up to date not knowing 2.1.1 was released January of this year. Very few advisors or techs know anything about OTA updates, how many there are and what is the latest one. Ford never trained them.

Edit: And now that Ford allowed the FSA for BlueCruise programming to expire, you think they're going to spend 8 hours + on his truck and not get paid for it? Even if he shows him this list, I can foresee another excuse coming.

 

[Snakebitten]

You could be right, of course.
But for that to be true the dealership would have had to have gone for more than 2 years now and never sold a single Gen14 F150 and had it in a service bay to attempt a TSB.
And if the service writer logged into whatever and noted an OTA update, then by that very action they are aware of OTA and that it exists.

And I don't think Ford the manufacturer should be held accountable for whether a service department and it's staff are willing to participate in training. While they very likely encourage it, you can't force feed product knowledge. The PRO is a PRO because he makes the effort to be a PRO.

Just my opinion.
I'm a little weary of the "Well nobody told me" culture. ?

 

[CanuckActual]

The thing is, I don' t think the truck ever made it to a tech. The service advisor pulled up his OTA dashboard yesterday and when he saw he had gotten an update the same day, he assumed the truck was up to date not knowing 2.1.1 was released January of this year. Very few advisors or techs know anything about OTA updates, how many there are and what is the latest one. Ford never trained them.

Edit: And now that Ford allowed the FSA for BlueCruise programming to expire, you think they're going to spend 8 hours + on his truck and not get paid for it? Even if he shows him this list, I can foresee another excuse coming.

Exactly.

I’m not exactly an automotive wizard, I’ve never even changed my own oil, yet at this point I seem to know way more about the software in this truck than the entire service department. And everything I know about this truck came from you guys in this forum.

Their Facebook page proudly proclaims this dealership is the #1 volume Ford dealer in all of British Columbia for 10 years running.

Anyways, I’m not even inclined to speak to them over the phone, it’s like speaking to a brick wall. I’m not usually the type to be that customer, BUT I am looking forward to speaking with my service advisor & whatever management is there this afternoon when I get in and calling them out for lying straight to my face.

I have the FDRS even viewer printout from Sept. 20 when it was in there last for this reason which shows they pulled up the 21G01 bulletin. They ran out of time & rebooked me for yesterday/today because that was the next 6+ hour slot they had available, and here we are and they haven’t done a thing. I was just told they had completed the 21G01 bulletin on my truck so I can’t wait to walk through each step with them and show each of the modules they were supposed to update have not been even attempted.

As I said, their reaction might be worth the cost of admission for me. If they want to fight me about no longer being paid by ford to do the work, I’d at least accept that as them being truthful. Truth be told, paying their shop rate out of pocket would probably end up being about the same cost to me as the DIY route.

 

[jflottawa]

You could be right, of course.
But for that to be true the dealership would have had to have gone for more than 2 years now and never sold a single Gen14 F150 and had it in a service bay to attempt a TSB.
And if the service writer logged into whatever and noted an OTA update, then by that very action they are aware of OTA and that it exists.

And I don't think Ford the manufacturer should be held accountable for whether a service department and it's staff are willing to participate in training. While they very likely encourage it, you can't force feed product knowledge. The PRO is a PRO because he makes the effort to be a PRO.

Just my opinion.
I'm a little weary of the "Well nobody told me" culture. ?

My good friend the "Master Ford Technician" explained this at length... Nobody is paying the techs or the dealerships for updating trucks. The trick is to come up with an unrelated issue against which the techs can bill against. There's no "I'm gonna sit here for 6hrs to update software" billable code in their system.

Ford banked (primarily) on OTA but that hasn't rolled out super smoothly yet. Until they either improve the OTA or pay the dealers for running software updates, there will be many FDRS threads in the forums

He's a friend and flat out said he wouldn't be updating all my software before I pick up the truck because there would be some serious complaining from management.

So some people blame the dealers, I still blame Ford.

 

[GDN]

Your OTA dashboard says you got 2.1.1 yesterday....that is true. Vehicle history does not show they even connected the truck to FDRS yesterday or today. I don't have FDRS to provide you with a list of modules needing an update, but I am sure the list is long if you are only getting 2.1.1 now. The good news is, you've gotten two OTA's in 9 days, so your truck is getting some love from the OTA gods.

What is this OTA dashboard you speak of, if you don't have FDRS? You may be an employee or at a dealership and have access to another tool. Apologies, just not aware.

 

[Snakebitten]

My good friend the "Master Ford Technician" explained this at length... Nobody is paying the techs or the dealerships for updating trucks. The trick is to come up with an unrelated issue against which the techs can bill against. There's no "I'm gonna sit here for 6hrs to update software" billable code in their system.

Ford banked (primarily) on OTA but that hasn't rolled out super smoothly yet. Until they either improve the OTA or pay the dealers for running software updates, there will be many FDRS threads in the forums

He's a friend and flat out said he wouldn't be updating all my software before I pick up the truck because there would be some serious complaining from management.

So some people blame the dealers, I still blame Ford.

If I was a tech, I'd simply tell the truth. Just like your friend did.

However, my post above was in response to the claim techs DON'T know anything about these trucks and its not their fault.

 

[rugedraw]

What is this OTA dashboard you speak of, if you don't have FDRS? You may be an employee or at a dealership and have access to another tool. Apologies, just not aware.

The OTA dashboard is one of the things you can access if you have credentials for Ford's PTS (Professional Technician System). It's the software service advisors use. I worked at two different Ford dealers for many years, so I have access thanks to friends in the business.

 

[CanuckActual]

My good friend the "Master Ford Technician" explained this at length... Nobody is paying the techs or the dealerships for updating trucks. The trick is to come up with an unrelated issue against which the techs can bill against. There's no "I'm gonna sit here for 6hrs to update software" billable code in their system.

Ford banked (primarily) on OTA but that hasn't rolled out super smoothly yet. Until they either improve the OTA or pay the dealers for running software updates, there will be many FDRS threads in the forums

He's a friend and flat out said he wouldn't be updating all my software before I pick up the truck because there would be some serious complaining from management.

So some people blame the dealers, I still blame Ford.

Amazing that non-functional vehicle features the customer has paid for is not an issue against which the techs can bill time…???‍?

 

[jflottawa]

Amazing that non-functional vehicle features the customer has paid for is not an issue against which the techs can bill time…???‍?

Agreed. I suppose if you go in for Blue Cruise ain't working - it should be addressed as a complaint.

I'm simply saying that if you go in for a service, or another (unrelated) issue they will address the issue or complaint but "please update all my software" is not a valid complaint from Ford's perspective.

 

[GDN]

The OTA dashboard is one of the things you can access if you have credentials for Ford's PTS (Professional Technician System). It's the software service advisors use. I worked at two different Ford dealers for many years, so I have access thanks to friends in the business.

Cool - thanks for confirming. I picked my truck up this week and the advisor actually showed me quite a bit about what they have access to today - it had to be this very thing. Had a big calendar view. It showed days where my truck had checked in, where it had set DTC's. He could drill into the DTC and it showed details about the module and likely issues. A couple more clicks and it looked like he was actually in the repair manual or at least information on some testing.

I was actually very impressed what they had available.

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